Our Promise

We believe that great cheese starts with high quality milk from healthy, well cared for animals. Our position as a global leader in dairy processing comes with responsibility, and we use it to promote animal care and appropriate dairy cattle handling practices.

We ensure compliance with our animal care standards through industry regulations and Codes of Practice, routine supplier management practices, and awareness and training programs. We have established a clear protocol to work with suppliers and authorities to effectively deal with situations where a breach of the Animal Welfare Policy is suspected.

We expect all milk producers to comply with recognized standards validated by a third-party animal welfare audit. On the issue of pain relief, we expect our suppliers to eliminate or modify routine Management Practices that are unnecessary or cause pain. These include the practice of tail docking cattle and the use of pain control when dehorning or disbudding cattle. We expect our suppliers to implement appropriate Animal Care Awareness and Training programs including a mandatory animal care Code of Conduct that is reviewed annually.

Our global Animal Welfare Committee oversees compliance to our standards, with members representing each country where we have operations. The Animal Welfare Committee is comprised of Saputo internal senior leaders from Governmental Affairs, Milk Procurement, and Sales. This Committee enables us to stay at the forefront of animal welfare best practices.

As part of applying our Animal Welfare Policy, the committee consults animal protection agencies, humane societies, governmental authorities, suppliers and customers who also work with animal welfare experts from universities and veterinary colleges.

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